BEETHOVEN

Ludwig van Beethoven was born 1770 in Bonn Germany. His mother was a singer in the service; his father was a court musician that had little motivation and a drinking problem. His father noticed that Beethoven had a gift at a young age, and began teaching him piano and violin. But Beethoven was a hard learner, he was self-involved and impatient. This probably led to why he was a loner and why he only went to academic school for three years. Beethoven s father wasn t the only one who saw Beethoven s talent, Gottlob Neefe (a German Organist) become young Beethoven s mentor. Gottlob thought Beethoven was the next Mozart, so he sent him to Vienna to meet him. But Beethoven s mother got sick so he had to come back home before he met him formally. By the time he came back to Vienna, Mozart had died so Beethoven sought help from Hadyn, another German composer. He became Beethoven s second mentor and taught him new styles of music.

Beethoven did his first shows in Vienna in 1795. He was the first composer that was not supported by wealthy persons; instead Beethoven supported himself with money from selling his music. By 1778, Beethoven started hearing humming and whistling sound in his ears, and it got worse. A few years later, he became completely deaf. Although he was deaf he could still write music. He finished his first symphony in 1800.

In 1802, Beethoven became depressed and thought a lot about suicide. He went to a small village in Germany where he stayed for a few years. The next couple of years Beethoven created his most impressing masterpieces. In 1812 he had completed over twelve of his best works and he was known worldwide. But after this Beethoven did not release any music for awhile and he got in trouble with the law over some royalties to songs. But in 1817 he began composing again and he did through 1824. In 1824 Beethoven composed two of his most memorable pieces, the Ninth Symphony, and Ode to Joy, these were two of Beethoven s best compositions. The first time Beethoven conducted the Ninth Symphony, the crowd, at the end of it was at a tremendous applause. And Beethoven was still with his back turned on the podium until one of the soloists turned him around.

In 1820 Beethoven won custody of his nephew Karl since his brother had died in 1815. Although Beethoven wanted to treat Karl like a son, he was neglected because of Beethoven s temper and him working on his music. At this time Beethoven was completely deaf and the ringing in his ears was making his temper worse and worse.

In 1826 he produce five of his last works, these works did not become that famous because they were too ahead of their time. In 1927 on a journey back to Vienna with Karl, Beethoven got sick with pneumonia and began coughing up blood. After pneumonia Beethoven was struck with many other illness which eventually led to his death on March 26, 1827. Thousands and thousands of people came and mourned at his funeral even though he was an impolite man.

I think Beethoven was a very important person in our history, he helped change the face of music forever. Beethoven wrote many symphony s, string quartets, and opera s that can still be heard and seen today. He also inspired many people to become musicians and writers. This is why I did my report on Beethoven.